Man, I hate the media, and you should too. Why? Because they have too much power. Power? Dan Rather can't drop a nuclear bomb on Somalia! I'm not talking about that kind of power. The media controlls what we see and hear, and that's a lotta power. Just look at shit like Dateline and 20/20 (an ironic name) when they do a story on some trial. The story is designed to manipulate the way you feel about the case. It's never obviously baised because it will start out for something, and against it towards the end of the piece--or visa versa. Now Dateline occasionally allows you to vote on the Internet, and it shows the results in realtime, and you can see the votes shift as the story does. Just look at The Fatty Arbuckle Story. There are doezens of examples of how the media can create a 'mob mentality' just to sell some more newspapers.

Of course, now we have the Internet. The vast web of anarchy controlled by anyone and everyone. Granted, much of the internet now is totally commercialized. If you had Javascript on, Tripod probably popped up a banner ad in your face, but that's the price I pay for a free anonymous website. The Internet is hardly uncontrolled though. Tripod wont let me put up porn, or links to porn, because Tripod just want's to cover their ass, which I can understand. Although once sites like Tripod start to regulate the content of their member's pages, does that make them responsible when something leaks through? I'm sure you'll be seeing that court case on a Dateline or 20/20 soon enough.

But the Internet still gives everyone the ability to cheaply publish whatever they want to the world. It doesn't mean everyone is going to see or care about what you have to say, of course. But this page would never be seen by anyone without the internet. What would I do, publish this as a weekly newsletter? A magazine? A book? I'd have a hard time convincing a publisher that I'd be able to make them any money. But Tripod doesn't care what I do with my webpage (well, almost).

Without the Internet, I'd never be aware of the craziness that is the Cult of Scientology. Before I saw Operation Clambake I thought that Scientology was just some church popular with Hollywood dorks like John Travolta. Most people (including Travolta) aren't aware of the insanity that lies deep within the cult. The traditional press has occasionally done stories on Scientology, but not until the Internet has the truth been known outside of the upper levels of the cult. L. Ron Hubbard, dispite being a crappy SF author, never predicted a medium where anyone can send their message to the world.

In other news, a friend of mine took that freak test I talked about it, and I was shocked that all of his scores were like 5%! He said he answered totally truthfully, too. Wow... I was shocked. See ya next time eatin' the pudding.